It's a new year in the 365 Items in 365 Days Declutter Challenge! If you struggled to declutter in 2015, this is a fresh start for you! And if you joined the challenge part way through the year, you can just keep right on decluttering!
It's the 28th day of the year today so if you just started in January (or started afresh), your target is to have purged 28 items by now! If you haven't started yet, just jump in! It's always a good time to declutter :)
Today I'll be sharing what I've decluttered since my last update at the end of December. By doing these updates I hope to give you ideas of things you can purge from your home!
Entertainment
I had hoped to go through my kids' DVD's, videos, video games, and CDRoms in December but the month just flew by. But this month we had to make a few adjustments to our basement entertainment area to accommodate our new TV. So I took that opportunity to go through all the kids' entertainment items with them.
Here's what they decluttered:
They are gave away 6 videos, 3 DVD's, and 15 CDroms.
We are selling 1 Disney Infinity starter set and 1 Disney Infinity character.
And we are selling 7 DSI games, 3 DVD's, 6 Wii games, 5 Xbox games, 8 CDroms, and 1 DVD game. Whatever doesn't sell will be donated.
We also threw out 1 Wii game and 2 CDrom games that weren't working (you'll see them in a picture of other garbage later in this post).
I mentioned a new TV earlier but we actually got 2 new TV's with some money we were given for Christmas (the one for the basement as well as one for our bedroom), so we decluttered the clunky old ones. In December I was counting items in and out for the #NetZeroClutter challenge, but for the purposes of this challenge I'm just recording items leaving our home. So I'm counting our 2 old TVs. Here's one of them.
Clothing
I usually declutter our clothing in the fall and spring, but I was delightfully surprised this month when my hubby and my son decluttered some of their t-shirts on their own initiative!
My kids have been putting away their own laundry since the fall, and my son has been frustrated with how full his t-shirt drawer is. He received several new t-shirts for Christmas too so it was even worse than before. He found 10 shirts that are either getting small or that he no longer enjoys wearing and told me I could give them away.
{You'll notice a puzzle in that picture too... that was a Christmas gift for my hubby and we worked on it through the holidays. We're passing it on to my in-laws since we have lots of other puzzles still here and my father-in-law likes lighthouses (and puzzles).}
And my hubby tossed 2 shirts that were really worn and donated 2 t-shirts that he wasn't wearing any more.
{Also pictured is a bag holder that I donated because I recently bought one to go on the back of a kitchen cabinet door so it's not cluttering up my wall any more.}
My closet was getting a little full after receiving a few sweaters for Christmas, so I donated 1 sweatshirt. I'll probably have more next month.
Bedroom Decluttering
My hubby and I bought each other a new bed for Christmas. Our old one was 17 1/2 years old... it was time. Along with the new bed we bought a new mattress protector... so out with the old one!
We're still getting used to the new bed, but one thing we found is that the memory foam holds in some of our body heat, so we decided to donate our warmest comforter set. Our lighter one is much more comfortable. I'm actually happy to not have 2 comforters any more... they take up a lot of room in our closet when they're not in use!
Random Decluttering
As usual, I also had a bunch of random decluttering this month. I just come across things as I go through daily life and realize we don't need them any more. So I add them to our donation basket.
Even though I decluttered a lot before Christmas and during the month of December, when we put all our Christmas decorations away this month, we donated a few more items.
- 2 ties (my hubby never wears ties any more)
- 1 book (my daughter has outgrown it)
- 2 washcloths (my kids didn't use them this year)
- 1 DVD (I love the Polar Express, but my kids aren't huge fans and this hasn't been watched in a couple of years)
Not pictured, I also donated:
- 1 duplicate book
- 1 book I'm not using any more
- 1 stuffed animal (1 of mine... we have more than enough in this house with all my kids' stuffies!)
- 1 piece of lingerie (a gift but it doesn't fit)
- 1 picture
And, as a result of some decluttering I did last fall, I had several empty Rubbermaid totes in the basement. I gave 6 of them to my sister-in-law.
I also tossed several items this month:
- 2 old spice bottles (really not sure why I haven't tossed these before... they're VERY old!)
- 2 broken headbands
- 1 broken snowman pin
- 2 old pieces of cable
Not pictured, I also tossed:
- 3 old hand towels
- 2 ornament boxes
- 2 broken document frames
- 1 more broken headband (it was a rough for headbands in our home!)
- 1 large bag of shredded paper
My Totals
All totaled, that makes 113 items decluttered this month. And since this is the first update of the year, that's a total of 113 items decluttered in 2016!
Wow! It's great to kick of the new year with a nice number like that! Especially after decluttering so much in December.
It is so great to be doing this challenge with all of you and sharing our progress together! I hope my decluttering has inspired you to look around your home with fresh eyes!
Are You Ready to Join The Decluttering Challenge?
Are you ready to declutter?!
January is a great time to let go of things so you can start the new year off on a lighter note!
In our Facebook group, we've had a LOT of activity lately! Near the end of December we reached 1000 members, which was a fun milestone to celebrate. And then we had over 100 people join in one weekend after my Hidden Costs of Clutter guest post on Organizing Made Fun made her top 10 posts for 2015 and then that post in particular was shared by 30 Days on Facebook.
Many group members kicked the year off by following my 31 Days of Easy Decluttering series. But as always, anyone can declutter anything in this challenge and lots of people shared how they were kicking off the new year by decluttering areas that really needed it.
Come join us if you need some motivation and cheering :) The details for this challenge are always in a tab at the top of the page here on the blog and I think every post in the series has a link to the FB group.
Remember to tell others about this challenge. They'll thank you for helping them declutter. Feel free to grab this button to spread the news if you're a blogger or have a website.
If you need any decluttering ideas to get you started or keep you going, check out the other posts from the series below... I seem to write about decluttering a lot :) You can also follow my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
What did you declutter this month? Do you have clutter you want to purge to kick off the new year? Have you joined the 365 in 365 Challenge yet?
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Here are all the posts in the 365 Items in 365 Days series:
